Misbah-ul Haq has predicted a bright future for Pakistan with the emergence of their promising young players.
Pakistan captain delighted with emergence of young players
Skipper Misbah-ul Haq has predicted a bright future for Pakistan with the emergence of promising young players despite losing the Test and one-day series on their tour of Sri Lanka.
The tourists lost the one-day series 3-1 and three Tests series 1-0, while they won one of two Twenty20 internationals
The Test defeat ended Pakistan's unbeaten run of seven series since losing to England on the 2010 tour which was marred by the spot-fixing in the Lord's Test.
While disappointed by the defeats, Misbah, who has captained his side since their loss in 2010, is looking forward towards a bright future.
"Defeats in the one-days and Tests are disappointing," Misbah told reporters on the team's return home on Saturday.
"We could have won the one-day series but our fielding let us down in the last two matches.
Good future
"The Test defeat was also unfortunate. But the performance of young players like Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Junaid Khan assured Pakistan has a good future.
"Our junior players did very well in the Tests. Ali, Shafiq and Junaid have done well in the series and with their performance we can say that our future is secure.
"In difficult situations these players performed well for us. The way Adnan Akmal played (in Pallekele Test) with a fractured finger is a good sign. Junaid is a big plus."
Ali scored two hundreds in the Tests, while Shafiq hit a match-saving century in the final Test at Pallekele which ended in a draw.
Sri Lanka won the first Test in Galle by 209 runs while the rain-hit second Test in Colombo also ended without a result.
Left-arm paceman Junaid took 14 wickets in the three Tests, including five-wicket hauls in the second and third Tests.
Meanwhile, Twenty20 captain Mohammad Hafeez said team's loss in the first T20 match was due to inexperience.
"We had a number of new players in the Twenty20 so the first match was lost because of inexperience but we came back well to win the second game," said Hafeez.
